This invention relates to a novel receptacle contact. More particularly, the invention concerns a receptacle contact which is formed with less wasted material than prior art receptacle contacts of the same size, and/or which provides a contact with a smaller total width. This enables better compacting of a plurality of such connectors, while at the same time providing for the male contact member to be inserted into an opening in the contact housing which has a centerline axis generally the same as the centerline axis of the receptacle contact.
In the past it has been common in the art to fabricate receptacle contacts by stamping a metal blank and coining the material stamped from the blank material into a desired shape, which may include rolling, bending or twisting certain portions of the material stamped from the blank in order to form the desired receptacle contact. An example of one such prior art connector is generally illustrated in FIGS. 6a and 6b. In this construction the contact is stamped out of a metal blank in the form of two legs each connected to the upper body of the contact by a narrowed portion, with connector shoes formed at the terminal ends of the legs to have convex mating surfaces, and with the legs being generally of the same length extending from the body of the contact. The narrowed portions are bent over towards each other and also out of the central plane of the upper body to place the legs in alignment with each other, forming the receptacle opening of the receptacle contact between the convex surfaces. It will be seen that the blank used to stamp out the contact shown in FIG. 6a must have a width of approximately W shown in FIG. 6a in order to stamp out both of the widened portions of the legs in a single stamping.
It has also been known in the prior art to form receptacle contacts with one leg shorter than the other and having convex mating surfaces spaced apart in the mating direction within the connector. Such an apparatus is shown, for example, in the patent to Sochor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,361. It will be noted, that the prior art contact may be stamped from a piece of material significantly narrower than that which is required to fabricate the contact discussed above. However, the mating direction of the male contact member is only aligned with one leg of the contact and is further aligned only with a laterally extending shoe portion of the other leg. This can create certain problems, for example, the mating direction is off center from the centerline of the body portion of the contact, i.e., is aligned with the centerline of one leg formed from the metal extending from the body portion of the contact, but is well off of the centerline of the other longer leg. Moreover, with the centerline of the contact aligned with the centerline of one leg, the receptacle opening for the receptacle contact must be spaced apart from an adjacent contact by an amount sufficient to account for the width of the other leg which is not aligned with the male member of the contact being inserted into the receptacle member. Thus, the distance between contacts on a connector housing having a plurality of rows of contacts must be increased to account for this off center entrance of the male contact member. Further, the front portion of the longer contact leg bears the brunt of the initial insertion of the male contact member, which can tend to weaken the contact by bending the shoe member or even breaking the shoe member due to the forces exerted on the shoe member as the male contact member is inserted. Over a large number of such insertions, as the entire connector containing multiple receptacles is mated and unmated with a connector containing the male contact members, a weakening of the laterally extending shoe portion can occur.
While such arrangements in the prior art have exhibited a degree of utility in the construction of a plurality of receptacle contacts to receive a plurality of male contact members, room for significant improvement remains. The problems enumerated in the foregoing are not intended to be exhaustive, but, rather, are among many which tend to impair the effectiveness of previously-known receptacle contacts. Other noteworthy problems may also exist; however, those presented above should be sufficient to illustrate that prior receptacle contacts have not been altogether satisfactory.